Monday, July 21, 2014

Media Virus -- Silly Book, Intriguing Idea

I’ve been reading a book called Media Virus! Hidden Agendas
in Popular Culture, by Douglas Rushkoff. Along with the silly leftwing
pseudo-intellectual arguments, Rushkoff’s main argument can be looked at from a
TREK angle.

What a stupid statement! Where does he think the
ENERGY to run these things comes from? Power plants! Where does he
think these “clean” techno-gadgets go when broken or outdated? The
dump! These facts don’t make TVs or computers any “cleaner” than
cars, do they?

A second silly section begins on page 58, as Rushkoff lavishes praise on the
“innovative” Esalen Institute, a trailblazer in the encounter-your-feelings
modern world. He’s in awe of its supposedly revolutionary format:“These were seminars conducted for a
participatory audience.For the first
time the students were as involved in the discussions as the ‘teachers’ ” (p
59).

What a novel idea, the idea that a teacher and his
students can learn from each other!What
do you think we should call these roundtable-type seminars, this
“never-before-tried” method of mutual inquiry between students and lecturer?

How about THE SOCRATIC METHOD? Which is, I don’t know,
THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD????

[breath]

Still, the central conceit of Rushkoff’s book is that, like a virus, a possibly
revolutionary idea or concept may hide inside a popular meme that becomes
prevalent without the “hidden intent” being a conscious part of the meme’s
perception..

“Once attached, the virus injects its more hidden agenda
into the datastream in the form of ideological
code….Media viruses spread rapidly if they provoke
our interest …” (p 10).

This reminded me of the widely held belief that Gene
Roddenberry was deliberately, intentionally preaching equality and optimism for
the future, under cover of a nifty space show with flashy costumes.

I think that this “bold vision of the future” is as much a product of our own
reading into history as it is a fact of STAR TREK history.

I think that GR was trying to find a hook to tell stories
that would give him a job and make money. If he could use those stories
and the show’s format to tweak “authority,” then so be it! GR had a
near-fatal flaw which is also present in my make-up – I hope I’ve learned to
resist it after all these years –, a nearly compulsory urg to try and “get
away” with something under the nose of people who outranked him. As a
kid, I snitched on my big brother. In college, I did some silly things
that caused me to switch jobs.

As documented extensively in Marc Cushman’s TOS, which exhaustively reproduces
memos and letters and interviews detailing the history of the series,
Roddenberry appeared to have an inherent naughty-boy side. It was this
behavior, NOT low ratings, which was a huge factor in the failure of STAR TREK
at NBC. The execs knew that they had a hit on their hands; but the hit
was helmed by a guy who kept trying to sneak things into the show that he knew
weren’t allowed, from religious matters to sex and race relations. Sure,
these are topics worthy of confrontation and discussion, but not on the dime of
a network and studio that was trying to make a buck! In fact, STAR TREK
basically bankrupted Desilu. Roddenberry’s trend-bucking didn’t help
matters.

And all of these
high-sounding progressive ideas probably seemed a lot more trouble-making and
less sincere, coming from a guy who couldn’t keep his hands or libido off the
actresses and (female) staff on the TV shows he worked on.

Roddenberry, like all of us, was a man with high dreams and will always be
honored as the man behind STAR TREK. But the blossoming of STAR TREK into
a cultural phenomenon and the culture-bearer for visionary dreams is a happy
accident. It’s not only the result of Roddenberry’s genius, but also the
bearer and recipient of the optimistic dreams of its audience.

STAR TREK envisioned
many of sci-fi’s optimistic visions of the future. But it was the
baby-boomer fans who brought the bright side of those dreams into reality, by
our intentions to “live up” to what we saw as a model for times to come.

Was the equal-sex, equal-race setting in STAR TREK the “virus” inside the
sugar-coating of a kiddie TV show? Was it INTENDED that way by Roddenberry?
You can argue both sides. But you can’t argue the with the facts that
demonstrate that GR was sometimes his own worst enemy when it came to his
relationship with the people who paid him. His own behavior sometimes
made STAR TREK’s future society seem as hollow as the protestations of
innocence coming from James Baker’s mouth.

As Keith Green once sang, “If you’ve been burned, here’s what I’ve learned: The
Lord’s not the one to blame.” In the same way, I’m not saying thet GR was
a terrible guy because his private life sometimes didn;t live up to the ideals
he instilled in us. But, like some disappointing people who fail
miserably at living out the religious beliefs that they claim to hold dear,
Roddenberry’s behavior was often counter-productive when it came to living out
“the STAR TREK ideal” in his own life.

I think that fanboys and fangirls are as much responsible for STAR TREK’s
success as its creator! In viewing STAR TREK in the light of Rushkoff’s
“media virus” scenario, I believe that the blossoming of the TREK “vision” of
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (stolen from the bloddy French Revolution –
"Freedom, equality, brotherhood") is a happy result of the young’uns
of the world taking these ideas and running with them! But these concepts
weren’t intentionally revolutionary in the sense that GR was trying to remake
society.

As Kirk says to Spock
in STAR TREK VI, “everybody’s human.” And we can all share in any credit
for making some of the best parts of STAR TREK come true.

About Me

I was born at a very early age, in a hospital to be near my mother. After appearing in productions of both GODSPELL and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR in the 1970s, I found a wonderful wife and wrote many love songs to her, but not as many love songs as I write to God my Savior and Redeemer. We have three kids (one of each) -- wait for it -- blonde, brunette, and redhead.